Linton
In Biggles Takes a Holiday, Linton was a British settler of the farming colony at Paradise Valley. He successfully escaped from it and brought news of what was happening there to the attention of Biggles. Linton had served as a captain in the First Airborne Division during the Second World War. He had fought at Arnhem and had been taken prisoner. After the war he decided to return to his civilian occupation as a farmer and saw a newspaper notice advertising a new international colony in South America and inviting people with some capital to take up some land in it. Linton was attracted by the glowing account of the colony and so invested some five hundred pounds of his money into the venture. He met Angus Mackail on the voyage out of England for Buenos Aires. Angus had also signed up for the colony and the two soon became firm friends. After arriving Paradise Valley, the two of them soon found that conditions were nothing like what had been advertised. They, like all the other colonists, realised that they had been duped by Dr Rodnitz Liebgarten who had taken their money and then left them to scratch out a living in circumstances which amounted to nothing more than slave-labour enforced by a troop of armed guards. Escape from the colony was difficult because of its remoteness, with the only means of transport, by river launch, tightly controlled by the colony masters. Around the colony, the jungles were populated by native tribes who were offered bonuses for capturing escapees and bringing them back to the colony. Linton and Angus however had a stroke of luck when they found an abandoned native canoe. They hid it and made preparations for departure but Angus fell ill with fever. Linton wanted to wait but Angus insisted that Linton proceed on his own before their plan was found out as this was the only chance to carry news of their plight to the outside world. By what seemed like a miracle, Linton succeeded in his breakout attempt. He got through jungles, rivers and crossed a desert, finally reaching the railhead although by then he had a poison arrow in his leg. Linton then stowed away on a freight train and made it to the coast where he managed to persuade the captain of a British tramp steamer to take him on board on its return voyage to London. On reaching London, Linton was gravely ill from the poison arrow and immediately warded in the London Hospital of Tropical Diseases. Knowing that he was dying, he asked to see Biggles. Linton died shortly after telling his story to Biggles. As Biggles noted, it was probably only his determination that someone should know the facts that kept him alive for so long. Once he had told his story, he "went out like a lamp that is switched off". Nonetheless, Linton's efforts had not been in vain. He provided Biggles with enough detail to plan and mount an operation to rescue Angus which ultimately succeeded. Category:People Category:Biggles characters Category:Air Police era characters